I think you all know where I stand on the Snowden affair, but I haven't had too much to say negative about Glenn Greenwald. I have always appreciated his attention to topics like surveillance and drone strikes, even when I think he can be too negative or absolutist. I certainly have not had very much negative to say about him for the things he's written using the information provided by Snowden, though I believe him to be rather sensationalist and a bit loose with the technical/legal facts regarding the revealed programs.

"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.

"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."

First of all, how are you just going to threaten the US government? "I'd hate to see something happen to your little government there." Also, in a way he seems to be daring the government to do something. The government isn't going to just back off just because of threats; is Greenwald trying to bring about a showdown?

Second, one intelligence professional on Twitter seems to believe that Greenwald is painting a big target on himself and on Snowden. Now that every intelligence professional in the world knows that Snowden and Greenwald have information that would be the US's "worst nightmare," don't they make themselves targets for every country in the world? The guy pointed to a couple of people from Human Rights Watch who are known to be former KGB, essentially saying that Snowden may be getting more than he bargained for with the people to whom he reached out for help.

As much as I disagree with Snowden's actions, I don't want him and certainly not Greenwald killed. I think they are treading in some very deep water here.